EC Montreal Homestay Family Testimonial

Brian and Ines have been hosting students coming to learn English or French from abroad for many years. We asked them to write about their experience as a homestay family and this is what they had to say.

1) How long have you been hosting students? 25 years on and off

2) How did you hear about LSC/EC Montreal? Through a friend

3) What made you decide to start hosting students? An education for our children of other cultures

4) What is your favorite aspect of being a homestay host? The shared stories, their culture, seeing our children growing up and having been affected by students from around the world. Trying to cook a meal indigenous to their country.

5) Would you recommend others to start hosting, why? YES, definitely for the company, an eye to the outside world, an education for their children

6) What are your comments about LSC/EC Montreal? We have also hosted for other schools and our experience is that EC has a better “family” atmosphere

FAVORITE MEMORY WITH STUDENT

We hosted a young student who played AAA hockey in Switzerland and he was one of the highest scoring forwards in Switzerland at the time. He joined a Montreal AA team (AAA must be Canadian citizen) and was bounced all over the ice as our game is rougher. He barely scored and was extremely frustrated. He went back to Switzerland and resumed playing for the AAA Swiss team, but now instead of being the highest scorer, he became the most penalized! Years later, he came back to visit us. He had become a lawyer. We escorted him to his room and showed him the hole in the wall he punched out of frustration after a bad game. We covered it with a poster until we repaired it. He had forgotten about that hole. It was quite the laugh.

Teaching a couple of our students how to make cheeseburgers. We thought “Hey, yes of course they can cook for us” One of the students put the cheese on top of the raw hamburger, flipped it and set the pan on fire. It was the last time we let this particular student cook but we had such a laugh about the whole experience.

WE LOVE HOSTING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FROM ABROAD AND WE LOVE EC MONTREAL!!